K12 Headlines

6/4/2014

Cassia County school officials have a new administrator for Cassia Regional Technical Center. Curtis Richins, who taught business education for the last 10 years at Mount Harrison High School, has been hired to replace Carl Voigt.

Shelby County Schools in Tennessee is looking to blended learning to help schools reach an ambitious set of goals that includes having 80 percent of its high school graduates college- and career-ready by 2025. The program will be piloted in 16 Memphis schools next year.

Sibling Group Holdings, Inc. has finalized the acquisition of Blended Schools Network (BSN). BSN will operate as an independent business unit. Currently, BSN serves over 160 school districts and has developed over 190 online courses, 15,000 lessons, 12,000 videos and over 8,000 modules.

Paterson education officials may soon regain partial control over city schools for the first time in 23 years. The New Jersey Board of Education will vote on a resolution this week that would give the city's nine elected school commissioners control over operations while leaving the most important functions in the state’s hands.

Penn Yan Superintendent David Hamilton will take over the Baldwinsville Central School District next month. He was selected to replace current Superintendent Jeanne Dangle, who announced that she would retire at the end of the school year.

School Superintendent Walter Dansby offered his resignation as the Texas district's leader. He first joined the school district as a teacher and coach in 1974. Dansby continued to rise through administrative roles overseeing instruction, athletics, student affairs and maintenance.

InFocus Corporation has added an 80-inch Mondopad to its family of large-format touchscreen conference room tablets. InFocus has also released a new version of the Mondopad software with many enhanced features.

State attorneys filed a motion seeking to remove the presiding judge in the long-running Texas school finance case because of alleged improper communications – primarily e-mails – between the judge and lawyers for the plaintiff school districts.

Federal law states that students are entitled to an appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. Some parents feel their local public schools aren't meeting their children's needs and see specialized schools for autistic children as a godsend. For others, they raise a new set of questions about segregation.

The Indianapolis Charter School Board approved the opening of Francis Marion Academy, a school expected to be within Indianapolis Public Schools, to focus on students released from detention and those suspended or expelled from their home school.

The Reading School Board has put a name and face to its finalist for the district's next superintendent. The school board started with 25 qualified candidates and narrowed the search down to Khalid Mumin, who has served as superintendent of Caroline County Public Schools in Maryland since 2011.

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey filed lawsuits against seven school districts, accusing them of discriminating against immigrant families by requiring government-issued identification from parents trying to enroll their children.